Royal Academy Schools Prospectus

The RA Schools has been a key part of the Royal Academy since its foundation in 1769. Each year we offer a full-time, three-year postgraduate course to 17 early career artists.

Lectures, group critiques, tutorials and artist talks are programmed every week, to run alongside each student’s production of work in the studios. Given the high student to tutor ratio, each student’s individual art practice is subject to in-depth and sustained discussion.

This course is free and additionally we offer financial support through bursaries and contributions to the cost of some materials. This support does not fully cover the cost of living and studying in London. Some students work part time at evenings and weekends sometimes taking up opportunities to take on paid work within the RA.

Applications for the 2020/2021 Postgraduate Programme will open 2 September 2019. The closing date to apply will be 16 December 2019.

A taste of life at the RA Schools

The RA Schools provides a shared space for exchange and discussion in the development of the individual student’s practice across all fine art media. Our school is equipped with specialist facilities for artists working in a wide variety of processes, including casting, ceramics, woodwork, sculpture, 3D printmaking, fine art printmaking, photography, audio-visual, film and video.

Studios

All of our students are allocated an individual studio space, whatever the nature of their practice.

Lectures

A mixture of lectures and artist talks form the structure of the working week.

Photo by Cat Garcia

Exhibitions

Students exhibit their work at the RA in their second year at Premiums, and at the end of the programme at the RA Schools Show.

Photo by Cat Garcia

Teaching

Our high tutor-to-student ratio ensures that each artist’s individual practice is subject to in-depth discussion.

Funding

The course is free, and we offer financial support through bursaries and contributions to the cost of some materials.

Specialist facilities

The RA Schools is equipped with specialist facilities and staffed with experienced tutors.

Photo by Cat Garcia

Community

Students join an established community of artists and art professionals including graduate peers, visiting artists, lecturers and Royal Academicians.

Graduates of the RA Schools

Our graduates have influenced art and culture in the UK and abroad through art practice, education, research, curatorial practice and collaboration. Stretching back to 1769, our graduates include William Blake and JMW Turner to living artists: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Eddie Peake, Prem Sahib and Rebecca Ackroyd exemplify the range of recent graduates.
If you are a graduate or you want to learn more about our graduates, see our graduates page for information.

Starr Fellowship

A residency at the RA Schools for an American artist

The Starr Fellowship is a yearlong fellowship for an artist who is a U.S. national. The Fellowship provides an early career artist with the opportunity to make new work in London, to contribute to the critical discussion taking place within the RA Schools and to meet and engage more widely with art and artists within London and the UK.

The Starr Fellow receives a bursary of £26,000 and a studio at the RA Schools. There are opportunities for the artist in residence to contribute to the RA Schools Postgraduate Programme.

The ideal candidate will have an independently established practice, with a record of exhibitions and/or research practice. The artist will also wish to expand their network in the UK and use the resources at the RA Schools to further their practice. Teaching experience and an MFA or similar is desirable but not essential.

The Starr Foundation

The Starr Fellowship is made possible through the support of the Starr Foundation, which was established in 1955 by Cornelius Vander Starr, an insurance entrepreneur who founded C.V. Starr & Co. and other companies. Later these companies were merged by Starr’s successor Maurice R. Greenberg into what became the American International Group Inc. Mr. Starr, a pioneer of globalisation, set up his first insurance venture in Shanghai in 1919. He died in 1968 at the age of 76, leaving his estate to The Starr Foundation.